10+ Free Restaurant Marketing Plan Examples – PDF

Starting a restaurant may sound easy when your’e still gathering ideas. But from that moment on, the road to establishing your own food business only gets tougher. Before you even start purchasing raw materials, you first need a plan. And one plan you need to formulate is a restaurant marketing plan.

A simple marketing plan is essential for any restaurant to achieve long-term sustainability. A marketing plan is not only meant for start-up restaurant businesses but for restaurants who have been in operations for months or even years. To help you create a restaurant marketing plan, we provided some examples in PDF you can use as a guide. We also included some tips on how to create a marketing plan.

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Essential Components of a Restaurant Marketing Plan

When creating a restaurant marketing plan, here are the essential components you should always include. Take note that the marketing plan should solely focus on the sales and marketing aspect of your restaurant, and it should have a comprehensive analysis of your products as well as your restaurant’s marketing activities.

1. Executive summary

The executive summary basically acts as the summary of the entire marketing plan. But take note that you cannot create an executive summary if you even haven’t completed your marketing plan. The executive summary should only comprise a single page (two pages maximum) of your entire marketing plan, and should also only focus on the important details of your plan.

The details that you will be incorporating in your restaurant marketing plan should the following sections as listed below: products and services, target market, analysis, and recommendations. The executive summary may be only a single page long, but its importance cannot be understated as most of the time possible investors will be looking at the executive summary and avoid reading the entire business plan.

2. Products and services

Listing your products and services is a no-brainer when creating a restaurant marketing plan. You cannot formulate the right strategies for your simple marketing plan if you do not first identify your products and services, in this case, your restaurant’s dishes. Unless you are selling other services in your restaurant, you don’t need to list them down in the marketing plan.

The dishes will determine if your restaurant will achieve long-term sustainability. These days, a delicious dish is not enough for the restaurant to attain high revenues. You need to sell those dishes at an affordable rate that can be afforded by your target market. You may also see strategic marketing plan examples.

If you have an extensive menu, you don’t need to list down all of your dishes as well as the ingredients involved in creating those dishes. You only need to list down your best sellers or the dishes you think will be a hit to your customers. You may also like business marketing plan examples.

3. Target market

The target market pertains to the customers where you will be getting most of your revenues from. The target market accounts to around 70–80% of sales, with the remaining 20–30% accounting for customers outside your target market.

Identifying the right target market is crucial if you want to achieve high revenues. For a restaurant, most customers will be having different preferences for your dishes. Some may prefer meat dishes, while others may prefer vegetable dishes. But even if they have different preferences, they should still prefer your restaurant over other restaurants. You may also check out marketing strategy plan examples.

4. Analysis

Analysis refers to the marketing strategies you are going to use as well as the analysis you will create from the marketing strategies you previously chose.

Identifying the correct marketing strategies is crucial if you want your restaurant to be successful. In contrast, identifying the wrong marketing strategies will result in your restaurant losing customers at a fast rate that might lead to the eventual bankruptcy of your food business.

Even if you serve the most delicious dishes but fail to market them effectively, then unfortunately your restaurant won’t last long in the industry.

Among the marketing strategies you should consider for your restaurant include

the use of traditional and digital marketing strategies,

handing out coupons to both regular and new customers,

hosting free-taste activities in public events,

joining food festivals together with other restaurants and food businesses,

conduct cooking lessons in universities and other academic institutions, and

using marketing methods.

Your dishes do not only define your restaurant but also the marketing strategies you will be deploying. Take note that if you see negative results in the simple marketing strategies you are using, have a contingency plan (plan B–Z) and list it down in your restaurant marketing plan.

5. Recommendations

The recommendations you will be formulating are basically the specific actions you will pursue that stem from the analysis you created. Avoid making recommendations that are too general or vague, as it will not help your restaurant in any way both short-term and long-term. You may also see event marketing plan examples.

Here are examples of recommendations you can apply in your restaurant marketing plan. Take note that the recommendations listed below are only summaries and not the actual recommendations in a marketing plan. Your recommendations should include an explanation as well as data you obtained from your general analysis.

The restaurant will be only implementing social media and will steer clear from using traditional marketing methods such as printing and distribution of attractive posters and elegant flyers. The restaurant will be using a combination of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

The restaurant will be using a marketing tool named Porter’s Five Forces to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors (i.e., restaurants serving similar dishes within the city).

The restaurant will be forging a partnership with three universities to conduct a live cooking session as well as free-tasting for students and faculty. You may also like annual marketing plan examples.

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Tips in Starting Your Own Restaurant

Listed below are some tips in starting your own restaurant. Since we already identified the essential components of a restaurant marketing plan, we might as well list down some tips when you plan to establish your own restaurant.

1. Make your food affordable

The food you will be serving is the most important factor in any restaurant. Even if you give out regular promos to customers, it will always come down to the dishes you cook and serve. If you are serving mediocre-tasting dishes, dishes that are too bland, or dishes that are too salty, then it will only result in numerous complaints from your customers. You may also see digital marketing plan examples.

Unfortunately, taste is only one side of the coin when dealing with customers. You also have to consider the price of your dishes.

Serving dishes that are too expensive will only result in customers staying away from your restaurant. Even if your main customers are earning an average of $10,000–50,000 per month, it does not guarantee that these people will be going back to your restaurant on a regular basis. Price your dishes for multiple market segments—the more people who can afford your food, the higher your revenues will be. You may also like affiliate marketing plan examples.

2. Increase the variety of your dishes

Serving the same dishes over and over again is not beneficial for your restaurant. Try to spice things up and increase the variety of your dishes. It is highly suggested that you retain a best-seller and rotate the other dishes in your restaurant. This may call for another set of menu to be printed out, so set aside your expenses for the printing of two or three sets of menu designs.

Having a different variety of dishes always results in more customers coming in. They definitely do not want to be eating the same dishes over and over again, even if they enjoy your dishes. As previously mentioned, retain your best sellers or the dishes that you think will be the best-selling dishes for your restaurant. You might be interested in personal marketing plan examples.

3. Have regular promotional activities

Promotion is an important factor in any restaurant. Pairing delicious food together with offering promotional activities will only produce positive results for your food business. Among the promotional activities you can deploy for your restaurant includes handing out coupons or attractive vouchers and offering discounts for your dishes.

Offering promotional activities will not only increase your revenues but also increase the visibility of your food business among different market segments. For example, if customers will be able to avail your promotional activities, they will certainly refer your restaurant to their family and friends. You may also check out integrated marketing plan examples.

Take note that loyal customers should not be the only ones who should benefit from your promotions, but your new customers as well.

4. Keep an eye on competitors

Keeping one eye out open on competitors will help you increase your sales. But make sure to avoid focusing too much on competitors as you still have to focus on your own restaurant. Also, never try to copy the exact menu and activities of your competitors. Be distinct in your dishes and have your own unique style so that customers can distinguish your restaurant from the others. You may also see implementation plan examples.

One method in keeping an eye on competitors is to hire a “mystery customer.” The main task of the main customer is to go inside the premises of other restaurants, analyze their menu, and order their best-selling dishes. Information regarding their dishes as well as promotions should be reported back to your restaurant. You may also like apartment marketing plan examples.

Of course, to protect the confidentiality of your restaurant as well as the identity of the mystery customer, the mystery customer should never divulge his true purpose when eating and ordering food at other restaurants.

5. Always seek for investment

All types of businesses, either small enterprises or large corporations, need investment. This ensures that cash is constantly flowing within the organization. At times, businesses run short of working capital (i.e., funds needed to run daily operations), that is one of the main reasons why they need investment. You may also check out hotel marketing plan tips and examples.

Investment is also needed if business organizations want to expand their operations. Investment is used to purchase physical assets as equipment or supplies. In a restaurant, physical assets may include gas ranges, hot plates, coolers, racks, ovens, fryers, tables, chairs, POS systems, etc. You might be interested in law firm marketing plan examples.

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We hope you found this article to be informative as well as helpful when you will be creating your own restaurant marketing plan. Having a restaurant marketing plan will help you achieve long-term sustainability for your food business.